We marked New Year's Eve with a trip to the Isle of Wight :-)

On Monday The Builder had suggested that we had a day trip to the island. I have never been and have occasionally mentioned that it would be nice t go there one day. So I had a look at the ferry fares. FIFTY TWO POUNDS from Lymington to Yarmouth. FIFTY TWO!! For a half hour trip and back. Portsmouth isn't running a car service at the moment. How much from Southampton? Oooh. An internet special. A mere £32 for a day trip. And a day trip was exactly what we wanted.

Bought the tickets - and then realised that we didn't have a printer! Fortunately, Barb does and we printed the tickets out when we were at her place for dinner.

We had an extremely good run to Southampton and were there nice and early for the ferry. A bacon sandwich and a hot chocolate while we were waiting. And just as well we hadn't decided to have breakfast on the boat- there were lots of people on board and the queue in the sandwich shop was enormous. Takes 55 minutes to get from Southhampton to Cowes. The Solent was flat and benign. It was very misty, but otherwise a good trip.

We disembarked and took ourselves off to look at a Roman Villa, whose brochure we had fund at the ferry port in Southampton. Apparently open daily during winter between 10 and 4. Well, daily, it turns out, apart from between Christmas and New Year, which little piece of information wasn't on the brochure. I found it later on the website, and the villa itself was manifestly not expecting visitors. A bit irritating, but never mind. Let's go and visit The Needles instead.

There is a Fun Complex at The Needles, rather like the one at Lands End only smaller. I think I had vaguely know that it was there but hadn't paid much attention. And it was, of course, closed for the winter, which is what you would expect. What nobody had expected was that the coffee shop, gift shop and toilets, which are open over the winter, would also be closed between Christmas and New Year. It was, I think, a seriously missed business opportunity. There were lots of people there when we were, who had anticipated being able to have a walk on the cliffs or the beach and then have morning tea or lunch afterwards. It was cold and foggy, but not empty of visitors. I would have been open (although perhaps not on Christmas Day itself) and taken my holiday when the schools went back next week! We went for a walk, climbed down and then up nearly all of the steps down to the beach, didn't have lunch, exercised good bladder control and went along the coast road, stopping at the Wight Mouse (sic) for lunch, a loo stop - and a drink for me. I was very, very thirsty and quite stunned The Builder when he asked what I wanted to drink by demanding a soda water. No wine? Well yes, that too - but SODA WATER FIRST

I had, for some reason, rather expected the Isle of Wight to be more like Jersey than Hampshire. Can't think why. It is, of course, very much like Hampshire, as you would expect if you had any sense. Except around Ventnor, which is remarkably like Jersey!

We had a fun run along the coast road and then made our way back to Cowes for the ferry home. Far fewer people on board on the return trip, although there were lots of cars waiting to board when we got back to Southampton. The Builder tells me they were probably commuters returning home from work. We had a good run back to Salisbury, found that we had just missed Waitrose which closed yesterday at 6, found that we had just caught Sainsbury's, which was open until 7 (and is open today between 10 and 6), acquired emergency supplies of wine and came back to the cottage for steak pie, chatting on skype, drinking wine and seeing 2009 safely in. Hadn't intended to do that. Had rather expected to be well and truly tucked up by midnight. But got caught up with the quiz program on Channel 4 and then watched the London fireworks and then Jools on Channel 2.

Having a nice and lazy entrance into 2009 this morning. Still in bed with a cup of tea and a pensive builder. Suppose I ought to get up and have a look at the shiny, squeaky, brand new year. There are no plans for today. None at all!